Case Studies

Accuweather Weather Data

Accuweather's Weather Data Services Inc, Specializes in weather risk management for businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. They provide warnings, forecasts, and other services tailored to each client's needs. Data storage, processing, and availability are critically important aspects of WeatherData's IT infrastructure.

Athabasca University (AU) is Canada's leading distance-education and online university. They serve approximately 37,000 students per year, twice the enrollment of six years ago. Since its inception by the government of Alberta in 1970, over 260,000 students have registered in AU's individualized courses and programs AU makes it possible to earn a university education regardless of where one lives or works.

Clear Voice Telecom provides businesses of all sizes with high quality hosted IP PBX solutions that dramatically reduce start up costs, upgrade costs and total cost of ownership. Their motto: "Eliminate the need for on-site hardware and take the burden off your IT staff. Let the experts at Clear Voice Telecom handle your telecommunication needs."

In the last ten years, KNAPP AG, a logistics expert company based in Graz, established around 600 logistics centers for over 200 customers worldwide. As a provider of warehouse logistics, KNAPP is responsible for all aspects of integrating logistics solutions, including simulation and plant layout, as well as assembly. The company offers solutions for all the tasks of a distribution centre, from software to conveyor technology, and requires a reliable IT infrastructure for its complex programs.

The Max Planck institute for Festkörperforschung (http://www.fkf.mpg.de/) has special requirements on its IT services. High performance computing is an important component of the scientific work and is carried out exclusively with Linux. The Computer Service Group of the institute operates several central services on Xen based virtual machines. DRBD provides the highest level of availability for them (vm's). You can find further details about this solution, in which numerous software components of SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution are used, here:

Midland County Central Dispatch Authority (MCCDA) was established in 1993 to consolidate the emergency services answering point for all police, fire and medical emergencies within Midland County. MCCDA is responsible for dispatching the appropriate emergency service agencies. These agencies include four law enforcement agencies, one full-time city fire department, twelve volunteer fire departments and one EMS agency.

Porsche Holding has outsourced its IT services and at the same time established a close relationship with its new service provider. Porsche Informatik GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of Porsche Holding, represents the head and backbone of a complex IT landscape that has the task of controlling the extremely fast growing company without downtimes. Josef Hagler, managing director at Porsche Informatik GmbH, has counted on DRBD to ensure high availability for a company that is developing at full speed.

Storage area networks are quite expensive due to the costintensive special server and switch components as well as the fiber glass cables required. LINBIT has developed a costeffective alternative that allows using COTS hardware and conventional Ethernet. This IP-based iSCSI storage area network has first been used at Salinen Austria AG.

The company’s primary focus is the telcom industry. However, it also has a projects department that caters to minor development projects. These include providing video and voice over IP (VoiP) communications to schools, hotels, retirement villages, resorts, and apartments.